Tuesday, August 21, 2012

'See-through' Glass Cleaner with a Spa-like scent

I've been on this home-made cleaning products kick for a while now. I never understood how something was clean yet I couldn't stand to be in the room because it smelled so bad - all those harsh chemicals. Yuck! I would actually get a headache from a clean house!

Here's an easy one to start you off with, and honestly - Windex doesn't even come close.

Equal parts white distilled vinegar and isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
1 spray bottle (your old, empty Windex bottle works great)
4-5 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional - but... I like to pretend I'm at the spa when I'm cleaning ;) my favorite scent: Peppermint)

Your window may look foggy when you first start wiping it - but don't worry! It dries quickly.

WARNING: Your windows may be so clear that people may walk right into them ;)


I have lots more simple and natural cleaner recipes i'll share with you soon!

Have fun cleaning Odds & End'ers!

Heidi

Under $30 Garage Workbench

So, I'm going to start you folks off with our most recent Saturday project. This is something I never thought could be accomplished in half a day! But my boyfriend on the other hand was very optimistic.

Ever since I moved in to my new condo, the one car garage has been the "dumping ground" for everything that has yet to find its permanent place inside. Me, being the organizing queen that I am (I organize people's homes in my spare time for some extra fun money ;) I love it!) it has been really hard for me to have such a chaotic space in my home. The majority of the chaos is my boyfriends tools. Ohhh the tools... I thought it would be a fair trade for me to let him keep all of his tools and what not at my house since he is my maintenance man and contractor :) and his current living situation doesn't provide him with much storage. Let me give you an idea of what I'm working with...


Time to build a workbench! Yes, this is my grand plan for this space. Looking online, the very basic of the basics in work benches start out at about 200 buckaroos! Time to think outside the box. Did some searching online for some basic home-made work bench plans and showed them to my boyfriend. Should have known... he already had the blue prints in his head. So.. off to the lumber yard we went last Saturday morning. Picked up 8 2x4's and some indoor/outdoor wood screws. Yup, that's it! Total bill: $25.

I finally got to get a lesson on using the miter saw :)

Here is the basic structure:



We had a 2x10 just laying around (leftover from another project) so we used that for the top along with another 2x4. Dimensions of the top are 5ft by 2ft.

We used the palm sander to make the top nice and smooth.... and Voila!

Custom fit workbench! "That thing is solid - It will last 50 years!" says my contractor. My organization skills must be rubbing off on him... it was all his idea to put up the peg boards. We will be adding a shelf on the bottom where you see that extra 2x4 for some more storage.
 
Till the next post Odds & End'ers!

Heidi







Monday, August 20, 2012

Welcome to my hodgepodge of odds and ends!

Welcome to my blog! I'm very new to the world of blogging but I wanted to create a place where I could share all of the things I've been doing lately. I recently purchased my first home! A foreclosure (fun!)... one that needed to be redone top to bottom... so you can imagine how many "little"  projects there have been. And due to my strict budget, my contractor (a.k.a. my amazing, can-fix-anything, can-build-anything boyfriend) and I have had to improvise on a number of occasions. So anywho, since I finally got a name picked out after a few weeks of thinking (had no idea how hard that would be!) it's time to start sharing with you! Hope you will all enjoy and hopefully some of the things I have done with help you out!

Heidi